SoLoMo: Whoozer, the application I actually want to use

﻿﻿﻿﻿Unfortunately, when something is in fashion everyone jumps onto the bandwagon, some better than others. There are always some interesting “pearls” to be found though…

Without further adieu, let me introduce you to Whoozer! What’s so revolutionary about yet another SoLoMo application?

It’s useful. Whoozer serves several concrete purposes: 1.) it lets users know when one of their friends is nearby, 2.) is a relatively safe way to meet new people and 3.) helps them find events happening nearby in real-time. What does that mean more precisely? No more of this: “What? You were at rue Saint-Anne (renowned for Japanese food in Paris) last night too? We should have met up!” Furthermore, connecting Whoozer to a Facebook account is also a great way to meet people. Whoozer shows you the people nearby (who have made themselves visible to others) and can also reveal whether you know people in common. Lastly, Whoozer is amazing for travel. Users instantly know the fun things happening nearby in cities they’re not necessarily familiar with.

It’s safe. Users are only visible to other individuals who have the application, and choose the radius within which they wish to see others and be seen. Here’s a quick example to make this a bit clearer: you can choose to see people within a radius of 1 kilometer around you and let people within that 1 kilometer see you as well. Of course you can also block and report people. Whoozer puts a premium on user security.

It’s versatile and full of surprises. The founders have tons of ideas in the pipeline just waiting to come to life (some of which I already revealed.) They’ve been working and growing like crazy, going live in just 6 months and already working on some of the many projects that will make Whoozer even more useful.

How did they do it? I thought you might ask, so I went ahead and did so for you during our interview. They have 2 pieces of advice for entrepreneurs:

Focus on development from the very beginning. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t work on your business plan as well, but the development will take a lot of work and time so don’t wait to get started!

Motivation, motivation, motivation! You have to find people who work well together and can motivate each other. You’re not going to have much time to dedicate to motivating your employees so make it easier on yourself and be careful with recruitment.

PS: Whoozer applied for the April 2012 edition of Start in Paris. You can support them by voting here until Thursday March 5.